Should I get crabs?

[HappyHermies]

Ok,great! Not too different from a previous routine then!

[ROSIEonFIRE]

They die alot? But don't they live for at least a decade in captivity,and several decades in the wild? So... If I got three,chances are two would die within a month or sooner? Ugh... That's so sad! Even if I have EVERYTHING set up perfectly,they'll still die?

adopted crabs are less likely to die than crabs purchased from the store. i adopted 5 crabs over a year ago and they all survived. i highly recommend adopting if you don't want to support the hermit-industrial complex because even if you tell them you 'dont support the industry' when you buy them, they really dont care what you think as long as you're willing to give them your money. also it was pretty easy for me to find crabs to adopt on this forum and it does feel good to give unwanted crabs a good home. GL!

[ROSIEonFIRE]

Ok! I've decided not to let possible deaths turn me off! I'll definitely do more research before deciding for sure,though. What do you do on a daily basis for your crabs? I know they are exotic and a little high maintenance,but what will I do daily while owning crabs?

In my opinion, they are pretty low maintenance on a day to day basis. Setting the crabitat up is a lot of work but once you have the tank set up and all your conditions are stable it's just a matter of changing the water every now and then and feeding them. I make my own food for them so that is some work sometimes, but overall I think they are less work than my crested gecko and more fun to watch too. The only thing I do on a day to day basis is change the food and maybe give the tat a little spritz if the sand seems dry. Also I love the way may tat looks, it looks like a little jungle in my living room.

Also, re substrate, I really recommend against a pure eco-earth set up mostly because I doubt it will reliably hold a tunnel. After generally inadequate conditions, the biggest threat to crabs in captivity is molting problems. Therefore substrate is one of the most vital aspects of hermit crab care. It has to be deep enough for them to safely molt (crabs love to tunnel and will try to cannibalize a crab who's exo is still soft) and moist and compactable enough for them to tunnel. I doubt pure eco-earth would hold a tunnel very well, or be strong enough to support any weight if a crab did manage to tunnel. When a crab molts they tunnel down and create a cave and hang out in there while they eat their old exoskeleton and wait for their new exo to harden up. If a cave were to collapse on a crab before their exo hardened that would probably be fatal.